


Darling, Dear, Dead

by AndreaLyn



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 22:42:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20919821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: Alex Manes' heart stopped beating in Iraq and days later, someone else's heart began to beat for him.





	Darling, Dear, Dead

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to islndgrl777 for the beta!

His memory of the explosion is riddled with gaps, but Alex knows three things. 

He remembers the panic and the hopeless experience of losing all hope of escape when he’d first felt the fire. He remembers his unit telling him that he was going to be okay, like the miserable liars they are. Then, he remembers waking up on a slab in a morgue with part of his leg missing, Jesse Manes standing over him, and a stranger’s glowing handprint on his chest right over his heart.

His heart, which isn’t beating, despite the fact that when he presses a finger to his wrist, there’s a pulse. 

“That will be all.”

“Sir, I’d like to stay and explain…”

“That will be all,” Jesse says curtly, dismissing the old man. Alex tries to sit up, but he feels too weak, staring down at his body. He’s trying to place himself, but wherever they are has no windows and the smell of disinfectant is so overpowering that Alex feels he could choke on it. 

Or maybe that’s just being in his father’s presence.

“Dad,” he gets out, trying to understand. It’s all so fuzzy, but he remembers the explosion and his heart slowing to a stop. He frantically presses his fingertips towards his heart to find that it’s not beating, but his skin hasn’t gone pale and his brain is still working, which implies that his blood is flowing, but his heart isn’t pumping it.

_How_?

“This isn’t how I wanted to bring you into the fold, Alex,” his father says, with great disappointment. “You made it impossible to ignore when you got yourself in trouble.”

Alex’s face contorts with rage and frustration at the implication that he somehow chose to put himself in a killing situation. He’d been sent into that life by Jesse and he’d been trying to protect his team. He’s ready to howl and rage and snap at his father, but the truth is that he needs answers more than he needs to be angry, which means he forces himself to breathe in steadily, then out.

Does he even need to breathe? Is he even alive?

“What did you do?”

“Since 1947, aliens have been a clear and present threat in Roswell,” Jesse begins, pacing to the wall and facing away from Alex as he begins. “They have abilities, which we’ve been testing since your grandfather first discovered their dangerous capabilities. The one we used has the ability to reanimate dead things and provide a life force for them. So long as his heart beats, it beats for you.”

Alex swallows the lump in his throat, trying to parse his father’s worse. Did he really just tell him that aliens are real and that he’d tied Alex’s life force to one? 

“This is insane,” Alex protests, trying to sit up. It’s the first moment that he’s actually seen the stump where his leg used to be, which he’s not sure he can process right now. He closes his eyes and looks away from the awful scarring. While he might have died, the loss of his leg is a much more tangible reminder of what’s happened to him.

Jesse turns to look at him, absolutely no sympathy on his face at all.

Why should there be? After all, true Manes men didn’t need sympathy, they just needed to do what they’re told.

“You’ve been dealing with them for years, Alex. I’ve already had to forcibly cut your ties with a murderous, vengeful alien.” Alex can feel the dread pooling in his stomach, because there are only so many people that can apply to. “Michael Guerin is one of them. He tricked you, Alex, to get to us. He pretended to want you in order to start bringing about our ruin. I ended that.”

Alex’s nostrils flare with rage. “You think that Michael is an alien?”

“I know he is,” Jesse says, calmer than he really should be given the bombshell he’s putting on Alex. 

He doesn’t want to believe it, but as he rubs his hand over the glowing handprint, he begins to feel sensations and emotions that aren’t his. Guilt, fear, panic. Aliens are real, there’s no avoiding that. The question is whether Alex believes that Michael is one of them. Glancing around, Alex tries to place himself as that thought spins in his head. 

“Where am I?”

“We brought you back to New Mexico. Right now, you’re at one of our prisons, a few hours from Roswell. When you’re fully recuperated, we’ll bring you back here and show you the legacy that I expect you to uphold, but I have to ensure your loyalties lie in the right place.”

He doesn’t say it, but Alex can read between the lines.

Jesse needs to make sure that Alex is loyal to the Manes’ and not to Michael. Right now, Alex is little more than a corpse lying in a morgue with part of his leg missing. His father used an alien to bring him back to life. He’s telling him that Michael Guerin, the man he loves (still loves, could never stop loving), is an alien too.

How long has Michael been keeping that secret for him? What can he do?

More importantly, if these aliens are at Jesse’s beck and call and made to do anything that he wants, then what is Jesse Manes planning to do to Michael if Alex’s loyalties lie in the wrong place? As if ruining his hand and breaking them apart hadn’t been enough, Alex is sure that isn’t the end of it. As a victim of it himself, he knows all too well that Jesse’s cruelty never stops. There’s always some new depth that you just haven’t seen yet. 

On top of all these thoughts, Alex knows how his father operates, which is why he knows what he needs to ask next.

“What do you want from me?” he asks dully, because now his father has something on him, and that means that he’s never going to be free, not while Jesse has power over the alien that brought Alex back. 

Jesse reaches down to squeeze Alex’s bare shoulder, nothing but a sheet covering his lower body (but no autopsy marks, so Jesse must have gotten to him _fast_). “I want you to join the family business, Alex. I want you to be the Manes man that I’ve always wanted you to be.”

His heart might not be beating, but the bone-chilling shiver that runs down his spine would’ve made his heart skip a beat, if it were.

“Rest, Alex,” Jesse advises. “We’ll have someone come around to bring you to your new life. You’ll report to us in a week at 0600, then we’ll begin working on your new responsibilities.” Jesse squeezes just a little too hard and Alex has to fight the pained noise from escaping (because he’s done with letting his father hurt him like that). 

On his way out, Jesse lingers at the door.

“In case you’re thinking about going against my will,” he says calmly, “just remember that the alien who gives you life is under my control. Michael Guerin is also under our watch. Consider those two things, before you do anything stupid.”

Alex watches his father depart from the morgue. On the cold metal sheet, Alex feels like little more than a dead body, because even though he might be breathing and conscious, Jesse has just threatened to take away the things that he’d actually want to live for. Pulling the sheet higher to his chest, he wonders if he’s about to let his father dictate the rest of his life.

Or, rather, for the rest of his unlife.

He needs to get answers and he’s not about to find any of them here in the morgue. There’s a set of clothes waiting for him on a nearby chair, a crutch leaning up against the slab, and no one in the room to help him.

Why would there be?

Would he be a Manes man if he needed to ask for help? Stubbornly, Alex fixes his mind on what he needs to do. His father may have brought him back to life, but if he thinks that means Alex is going to remain indebted to him, then he’s got another thing coming. If his father wants him to believe that aliens are real and that Michael is one of them, he wants to hear it from his mouth.

Once he does, then he’ll be ready to ask for an ally.

There’s an alien somewhere in his father’s prison who’ll have answers for him and Alex intends to get them. It might not be the loyal path his father wants him on, but as far as Alex is concerned, it’s the one he needs to take in order to make sure he doesn’t end up a puppet for his father, the same as the rest of the poor souls in this prison.

* * *

It takes Alex almost an hour to do something that used to take him five minutes, but he manages to get changed, put on the shitty prosthetic, and lumber his way through the halls of the prison on his crutch to find _anyone_ that can get him back to Roswell.

No one had entered the room to help him, but he thinks that even if they had, Alex would have told them to get out. That stubborn determination to prove that he doesn’t need anyone’s help might be an inherited Manes trait, but Alex wields it like a weapon. Eventually he finds a few guards in a control room and it takes about two minutes of getting snippy with them before they offer him a ride back at shift change.

They drop him off in Roswell at a safe house, where Alex stays for exactly two days. Two days later, he finds out that Jim Valenti left him a cabin in his will and Alex takes all his things, puts them in a duffel bag, and gets a taxi driver to deliver him out to the middle of nowhere. With his crutch, he’s unsteady as he shifts up the wooden stairs, but the key fits and it unlocks the door.

He really had been thinking this would be some elaborate joke, but it looks like Jim really did leave him this cabin. 

Why? Alex has no idea. 

That’s not the biggest problem he’s facing right now. He’d vehemently turned down the offer of a parade for him, not wanting to even think about the idea of sitting on a float and letting people wave at a reanimated corpse, when all he did was have the good luck to die and have a father that felt he needed to revive him.

He’s not even sure he wants to go to the reunion. His head is a mess and though it’s been days, the handprint on his chest still glows. Through it, he swears he can feel someone else’s emotions and it’s hard enough coming to terms with the fact that he’d died, let alone the fact that he’s currently tied to an alien’s emotional state.

He’s also not sure what to make of the fact that he can feel _worry_ through the connection and Alex is only guessing, but he’s fairly sure that the worry is for him. 

What does it say about his life when an alien in a prison cell is worried about _him_?

Alex takes his modified truck and drives for Foster Ranch, where he knows he’ll find Michael. There’s been reports of him from the team that had done the sweep to reclaim the land from the Fosters for the new military installation. Alex was supposed to have been on that team, but his father’s orders have kept Alex out of the spotlight while they work on doctoring the files necessary to convince the world that Alex Manes had only been injured and hadn’t died overseas.

When he gets there, he sits in the truck and stares at the Airstream for almost half an hour, watching Michael’s shadow move past the covered windows. He’s home, so that’s a start, but Alex can’t convince himself to get out of the truck.

How’s he supposed to start this?

_Hey, I’m home._

Easy, true, but not even remotely close to the whole story.

_I hear you’re an alien and my father has been keeping people like you prisoner in a complex about two hours from here._

That’s also true, but much more difficult to get into, and that doesn’t even get into the real reason he’s here. He needs to hear the truth from Michael and he needs his help, because the last thing he wants is his father controlling his life. With one alien’s heartbeat, he can do all sorts of things to Alex, and that terrifies him. He hasn’t done anything yet, but that doesn’t mean he won’t start.

There’s a whole history of abuse for Alex to reach back into and recall why it’s not safe to trust Jesse.

Alex gets out of the truck and uses his crutch to slowly walk over to the Airstream, knocking on the door. He tells himself that he’s ready, he vows that he’ll be ready to see Michael again, but the truth is that when Michael opens the door, he discovers how absolutely unprepared he is for this moment. 

“Guerin,” Alex says, standing frozen in place as he stares at Michael for the first time in years. If this bond is a two-way street, then the poor alien who’d healed him must be feeling a tidal wave right now as Alex struggles to tamp down old feelings, even though they refuse to be contained. 

It looks like a shock to Michael, too. His mouth falls open and he gapes at Alex, his gaze sliding over his body. “Alex,” he exhales, not really sound so much as _air_, and he almost looks like he’s about to cry. “Isobel said that you were back, that you were supposed to get a parade because you got injured. Everyone’s saying that you lost your leg.”

Alex leans down to give the prosthetic a knock, the dull echo sounding painful to his ears. He could stop there, let Michael believe that’s all it is. He could even walk away without asking if Michael Guerin is an alien, but that’s not why he’s here.

“Yeah, Dad did a good job of making sure everyone heard the cover story,” Alex says bitterly.

Michael hasn’t moved from the top step of the Airstream and Alex isn’t making any attempts to push him inside. The three feet of distance between them feels safe and necessary, because if Alex wants to explain everything, he needs to make sure he can think clearly to do it. His brain has a tendency to short-circuit the closer he gets to Michael and when they’re touching, it’s a lost cause.

“What do you mean, cover story?” Michael asks warily.

“I died.” Alex says it for the first time out loud. He lets out a soft huff, shaking his head. “I lost my leg, but I was also dead. They transported a corpse from Iraq back here to some kind of fucked up prison or government institution, and then my father got involved. He used an alien to bring me back to life,” Alex says, tugging the neck of his t-shirt down to show Michael the faintly glowing mark, watching his expression carefully.

Michael stares at the mark and he _knows_ it. He’s seen it before. Alex needs to hear him say it for his own peace of mind, but that look is confirmation enough. If Michael isn’t an alien, then he knows more than he’s been letting on. Alex very pointedly hasn’t shifted his gaze away from Michael because he’s needed to know.

After that reaction, there’s no doubt.

“I…” Michael sounds like he’s about to bluster through some kind of fake shock, but the thing is, Alex isn’t going to buy it. His father might be wrong about a lot of things, but so many small pieces of information that he’s known about in the past make sense now. He’s staring at the handprint on Alex with a kind of horror that makes Alex feel terrible, because even though he knows it’s not likely because of him, he’s freaking out because it _feels_ a little like it is. 

“The alien put his hand on me, then healed me. I think,” Alex admits, floundering. It’s not like he got the instruction manual and he doesn’t really trust that his father told him the truth. “My dad wants me to work with him, he said he’s tied me to this alien and that my heart only beats as long as his does. He threatened you. He knows who you are.”

Alex rubs his hand over the glowing handprint and now he wonders if that will ever go away. If it's meant to be pumping blood through his body, then maybe he’s stuck with it forever. It’s a disconcerting thought, especially considering that it’s a complete stranger that it’s happened with, and one who doesn’t look like they have much more of their life to go. 

“Who I am?” Michael asks him, stepping closer. “Or what I am?”

Alex doesn’t answer because he doesn’t think he needs to. He keeps his hand pressed over the mark on his chest and gives Michael a long look. “You’re Guerin,” is all he says, with the confidence of a man who knows where his loyalties lie. “I don’t care what planet you were born on. That doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

“And how do you feel about me?” 

He walked away ten years ago because he’d been scared and felt helpless. He’d wanted to go win battles instead of feeling like a victim. Funny how he’s back in Roswell because his father took him out of a body bag, brought him back to life, and intends to turn him into a puppet instead. “When we were seventeen, I would’ve been an emo asshole who said that if there’s any alien my heart would beat for, it’d be yours.”

Michael lets out a rough laugh, shaking his head. “That was almost romantic,” he quips.

“Yeah,” Alex agrees quietly, and he twists his fingers on the grip of his crutch, stepping closer to Michael. “He had some good taste and knew how to go for what he wanted.”

The moment draws out between them, but neither of them moves. For Alex, it’s because he's scared about the connection and what might be reported back to his father. He’s not sure what keeps Michael paralyzed in place, though there’s no shortage of reasons that Alex can dream up. Finally, Michael drags his gaze away from the handprint. He swallows so loudly that it audibly clicks, and Alex wonders what part of this is troubling him the most. “Alex, who was he? The alien who healed you, did you know him?”

“I never got a name.”

“You got a face, though? It wasn’t someone that you recognized?”

Alex nods his confirmation about Michael’s first question, because no matter what happens in his life, he thinks he’ll always remember that man’s face. Michael seems to think that maybe he should have known him, which connects a lot of dots and reminds Alex about the reports of three kids wandering the desert, but that’s not his place to talk about. Alex’s confirmation that he remembers the face seems to be enough for Michael, who leans forward to gently take hold of his wrist, prodding him in the direction of the truck. 

“Then we need to go see Isobel.”

It’s the middle of the night, but apparently Michael means they’re going right _now_. Alex lets himself be dragged along because he wants answers just as badly, but he lets Michael lead. There are any number of things that they might be interrupting Isobel in the middle of, and he wants Michael to take the brunt of that blame. 

“So,” Alex says because if Michael’s already brought it up, he’s not the one spilling secrets, “I’m guessing Isobel and Max are…”

“Aliens?” Michael cuts him off. “Yeah. Figured your Dad would’ve thrown them under the bus, but I guess his conspiracy hard-on is only for me. Probably because I’m the one who slept with you in high school.”

Alex isn’t sure what to do with any of this, but he knows one thing.

“What my Dad did to you was wrong,” Alex says roughly, his eyes skirting over the marred skin on Michael’s hand.

“Yeah, well, what he did to you was, too.” Michael glances sideways, a guilty look on his face. “Thing is, I can’t even be that mad about it, because he didn’t ask for your permission and he brought you back from the dead to live like this, but it means you’re still here. So, you know, he’s an asshole, but I’m kind of grateful to him and that’s a weird feeling to have.”

Alex nearly reaches over to slide his palm over Michael’s neck, but he’s stopped by the reminder of Jesse’s threat at the morgue. There are other things they need to address before he can do anything remotely close to what he wants to with Michael. “What’s the plan here?”

“Your Dad has leverage over you right now, right? He knows about me, he brought you back from the dead and didn’t let you get any answers. He could be lying to you,” Michael points out. “Maybe once the handprint fades, so does the connection. If we want answers, we need to figure out who this guy is. Alex, we need to go back to that prison.”

He looks worried about saying it, but Alex has been determined to escape the bonds his father had put him in for a long time, and there’s no hesitation in his tone as he digs blunt fingernails into the skin under them, pulling Michael closer to him so he can rest his forehead against Michael’s, determined to do anything he can to figure it out.

Maybe he’s living on borrowed time, but he refuses to let Jesse own any of it.

“Then let’s go see Isobel,” he insists, with steely grit in his tone that hides how nervous he is about this. He’s walking into the situation blind. Who knows what other aliens his father might have at his disposal, but he’s already a dead man walking. If he goes along with his father’s wishes, then Michael will remain in the crosshairs. If they do nothing, then they’re subject to everything and Alex can’t have that.

Which means that the only way out is through.

* * *

Isobel takes thirty minutes with Alex (after sneaking out of the house so that Noah won’t see them), looks him over, and then asks Michael if he wants her to send him away. 

“Jesus, Isobel,” Michael hisses, “his father’s already put him deep in this shit. He knows, and he’s not going to sell us out. He’s one of us now,” he says, with an apologetic look at Alex. “We need to bring back the alien’s face to the forefront of Alex’s mind so when we go there, we find him and figure out what happened.”

Alex feels like he ought to be frightened, but maybe dying has taken his reasonable emotional responses and stripped them away, because he feels nothing but an impatience and annoyance that he might end up the subject of more alien crap. It takes Isobel another moment before she agrees, but she steps forward and presses a hand to the back of Alex’s neck, casting them inside a space where Alex feels like he’s floating. 

“Where are we?” he asks warily.

“Somewhere that you can’t lie. Michael wants me to help you remember. Maybe I want you to forget,” she says coolly. “How do you know about us?”

“My father used an alien to bring me back from the dead. He says that I’m connected to him and he’s threatening me and he’s threatening Michael,” Alex spits out, angry that they’re wasting time with this interrogation when they could be getting to the prison. “I won’t tell anyone, Isobel. I’m only alive because an alien was forced to bring me back, but until I can manage to fight some control out of my father’s hands, I won’t be able to do anything about it. Please,” he begs. “Help me remember.”

“And Michael?” she challenges. “Why is he in danger?”

“Because my father knows that I love him,” Alex hears himself saying. He can’t lie, which means the truth slips past his lips despite his deep desire to keep that hidden. “That I never stopped loving him, and that I would do anything for Michael Guerin.”

He must have said something right, because Isobel stops with her questions. 

“Focus on your heartbeat,” Isobel says. “Think about the blood being carried through your veins, and then I want you to remember who gave it to you, whose heart is beating for you. Think about the alien, Alex,” she coaxes. 

He closes his eyes and thinks about waking up on the slab in the morgue. He thinks about the alien with his sorrowful eyes and the apologetic aura around him, how he’d practically been whispering ‘I’m sorry’ the whole time even if he hadn’t said it with words. Then, he begins to piece together the man’s features. Older, certainly in his late eighties or maybe early nineties. His hair had been gray, with scars on his neck, blue eyes, and age spots lining every visible piece of skin. He was lean, on the border of starvation, and in pain. No matter how much Alex had been hurting, the alien had clearly been worse

He fixes him in his mind. 

“Do you have him?” Isobel asks.

Wordlessly, Alex nods. That’s when he feels the air rushing around him as the shimmering world they’d been standing in fades away. He hears Isobel distantly telling Michael that it had worked, that she trusts him (for now), and that he needs to be careful.

“There are a lot of them there, Michael,” she warns, her eyes askance to Alex. “If you go there, what’s to stop you from becoming Jesse’s latest pet project?”

“If Alex doesn’t do this, I’m going to end up one of them anyway,” Michael says sharply. “Let’s go,” he says to Alex, and pulls him back to the truck. 

Alex tries to stop to thank Isobel, but she’s already gone back inside the house. Given the stormy expression on her face, she clearly hadn’t been happy about helping them, but he’s not sure what’ll happen next. If he and Michael can figure this out, he doubts he’s about to be invited to Sunday dinner at this rate, but so long as Isobel isn’t trying to blackmail him into destroying the man he loves, she’s a step above his father.

Michael helps him carefully into the truck, cautious of his crutch, and he sits at the driver’s side with the key in the ignition. “Do you remember where we have to go?”

“I think so,” Alex says. “They didn’t blindfold me when they drove me away from it, probably figuring they had enough on me that I’d feel cornered. I can get us back there. I can get us back to the alien,” he says, sliding a hand over his heart. The handprint is still there, glimmering whenever Alex touches it. “Now that Isobel’s helped me remember what he looks like, we can get answers.” 

What he hasn’t got is information on how many guards will be there, whether they’ll think he’s fallen in line with the Manes’ agenda, and whether he even has the skills to get in without being noticed, but it’s better than lying back and taking it. 

He gives Michael directions, and it takes them two full hours before they arrive at a building that looks hauntingly deserted in the moonlight. He hadn’t gotten a name of the building, but Alex knows for a fact that after they’re done here, they need to do something about this place.

First, he frees himself from his father’s control. Next, he and Michael can do anything they want. 

Him and Michael. Shit. They’d fallen right into this task that it’s distracted Alex from realizing that they’re here together finally. He catches himself staring at Michael as they drive, his eyes falling to his lips, and he thinks about what he wants.

Alex wants to get something on his father. He wants to wrestle control out of his hands to keep Michael safe. He wants a plan to deal with this prison full of aliens that his father has apparently had all this time.

Beyond that, he wants so badly to get his hands on Michael’s body again. He wants to kiss him until his lips are bruised. He wants to remember what it feels like to tangle his fingers in Michael Guerin’s hair and grab hold of him so tightly that the rest of the world fades away until there’s just this man.

They can focus on that later. 

“There,” Alex says, to a small side door that he’d remembered them leading him out of. He suspects that it’s not the official entrance, because Alex gets the feeling that his father isn’t exactly following protocol after what he’d done. He doubts that the official government channels would have happily recognized a resurrected son as approved business.

Michael parks the truck near it, as if they’re going to need it in case they have to make a quick bolt out the side door, but once they’re in park, Alex finds himself frozen in place. Even being in the shadow of this place is making him anxious in a way he hasn’t felt since he was overseas. He’s not shaking, but he’s so taut that he might snap, and he feels Michael reach over to give his knee a light squeeze.

“Hey,” he murmurs. “It’s okay. Anyone tries to start any shit, I’ll blow them up with my brain.”

“You can do that?” Alex asks with disbelief and a laugh. 

“No, but I can make sure no one comes at us,” he vows. 

Alex takes a deep breath to prepare himself and heads to the door, waiting with his back to it while Michael picks the lock. Alex gapes at him, until it clicks. “You’re telekinetic?”

Michael gives him an almost surprised look. “What, Jesse didn’t have a stats card on me?”

Numbly, Alex shakes his head, not able to give an answer. He must have managed to work the tumblers in the lock with his brain, and now he understands what he means when he says he can prevent anyone from coming at them. Alex only wishes that he had a gun, but he hadn’t had time to arm himself before going to Michael, which means that he really is putting himself fully in Michael’s capable hands.

The good news is that he’s sure that Michael would die before he let anything happen to Alex. 

Once they get inside, the lights are low. There’s a small degree of illumination coming from each cell, but Alex knows they’re not about to open them without alarms going off. He shifts his weight on his crutch and heads for the panel at the end of the hallway to disable the main doors before they start their walk, but Michael is wandering through the halls with a pained look on his face as he stares into each of the cells. 

“We’re coming back,” is all he says, sharply. 

“Okay,” Alex agrees, not sure that this is the time to be fighting with Michael about whether that’s a good idea or not. With the alarms turned on, Alex leans on his crutch to follow after Michael. Being here is unnerving, both because it’s proof of what his family has been doing, but also because only days ago, he’d been a dead body in this prison.

It’s a thought he doesn’t want to spend much time on.

He makes it another three cells before coming to a stop, seeing a man’s face that Isobel had brought to the forefront of his mind. “It’s you,” he says. Alex stands, staring at him, struck by being in his savior’s presence and not knowing what to do about that. 

The alien who saved his life is an old man, which he’d known, but the reality of that fact has only begun to sink in. Alex remembers his father’s words about how his heart is tied to this alien’s, but given how frail and sickly he looks, he’s starting to wonder if Jesse really did much more than slightly prolong the inevitable. Maybe he only has a use for Alex for the foreseeable future and then he’s happy to do away with him.

“Rath,” the alien says as he looks at Michael, then falters. “Or perhaps simply biologically close to him. Good enough. I’m Yashiv,” he says, his gaze sliding to Alex. “You know this boy?”

_Rath_ is a name that Alex has never heard before and from the surprise and shock on Michael’s face, neither has he. It’s something they can deal with later, as so many things in this prison will be.

“I do,” Michael agrees, clearly overwhelmed as his gaze keeps drifting back to the other cells. “What is this place?”

Alex works at the keypad to open the door, but before the alien can answer, discordant alarms start going off in the cell block around them. “Shit,” Alex hisses. “I thought I’d disabled them all. Don’t move,” he instructs Michael. “I’ll be back soon, okay?” He adjusts his crutch and starts to move down the hall to the control panel to figure out why the alarm had gone off, wary of leaving Michael and the alien alone, but it’s necessary.

He moves quickly and keeps his vision focused forward, not because he doesn’t want to see the others, but because he’s sure that if he looks, he’s going to want to free them all. That would be a spectacularly bad idea when he has no idea what he’s up against, and the last thing he needs is Jesse coming after all of them and shoving them right back in.

He opens the panel and finds the last switch he’d meant to hit, turning it off and cutting off the communication to the main alarm, sending a message to the main control that everything is fine and it had been a glitch that set the alarms off. When the alarms go silent, he presses his forehead to the main display with relief when the main control room confirms they won’t be sending anyone down, heading back to make sure Michael hasn’t done anything short-sighted, like free every single alien in here.

He wants to believe they’ll be back soon, but Alex can’t promise that.

Instead, he focuses on what they are here for. Dismantle Jesse Manes’ lies and get real answers about what’s happened to him. 

When Alex comes back from dismantling the alarm, the older alien and Michael are deep in conversation with one another, both of them standing just outside the glass. He slows to a stop, trying to pick something out of that strange connection he has with the alien (Yashiv, he reminds himself). What he gets when he tries to tug on that string is just admiration and fondness, so at least Michael isn’t down here picking fights.

“I missed one of the alarms, but I made sure to send communication that everything’s fine,” Alex explains, shifting his weight on the crutch in order to get closer. “What’s going on?” he asks suspiciously, seeing as Michael and Yashiv had stopped speaking the _instant_ that Alex got close.

Michael looks guilty, but Yashiv looks (and feels) proud. 

“I was explaining to Rath that my power and the enduring effect are not tied together.”

Alex shakes his head, confused about what he’s saying. “I don’t get it,” he admits.

“Neither did I,” Michael admits, approaching Alex to take him by the elbows, carefully shifting his hand to avoid it lying over the crutch and instead on Alex’s forearm. “Yashiv explained it, though. For a genius, I’m pretty stupid when it comes to other aliens’ powers, but no one ever taught me. Only he can revive someone or something from the dead,” he says. “That’s where his power excels, but what he’s saying is that once someone or something is revived, he doesn’t have to be the person their life force is tied to, but it has to be tied somewhere.”

Alex is beginning to understand what Michael is saying, but it all seems like a _lot_. 

“I just got back,” Alex says, in disbelief at what Michael is suggesting (even though he’s yet to put it into words). “Guerin, this isn’t a date or a fling. This would be…”

“It’d be a lifetime,” Michael cuts him off. “I know, but Alex, we all know that Yashiv has only got a few years left and he’s under your Dad’s control. Even if we get him out of here, that’s not a very long time. C’mon,” he pleads. “You gotta let me do this for you,” he pleads, his eyes shiny with tears, like he’s genuinely worried that Alex is going to turn him down.

“My Dad will still come after you,” Alex says, and that fear and that shame that Jesse has buried in him comes rising out, like spring perennials always ready to resurface. “He’ll be after me, too.”

“So what? You stick around here and he’ll be after me,” Michael argues sharply. His tones are veering closer to panic, but Alex already knows his decision.

He’s known his decision since he chose to visit Michael instead of willingly going along with his father’s destiny for him. That fear and that shame that Jesse makes him feel is what’s making him doubt the choice he’s made, but he's already made it. Ten years ago, he would have made the same decision, but at least he’s doing it this time before it’s too late.

He's already too late technically, because Alex Manes’ first life ended overseas. He’s just lucky enough to get a second chance.

They won’t have much longer before the alarms and the cameras are back online, Alex needs to make a decision and he can see both Michael and Yashiv waiting expectantly for him. “Is it going to hurt?” he asks, the fear lingering in his voice.

Alex doesn’t want to die again, and he doesn’t care how scared that makes him.

Whatever emotion he’s projecting, Yashiv murmurs something to Michael that Alex can’t hear, but it spurs Michael forward to tug Alex into his arms, holding him tight. His hand is pressed to his back, the other buried in his hair, and they sway minutely, the way they had during their first kiss. 

“We’ll make sure that you barely feel it. One moment, your heart will be tied to his, and then the next, it will be mine.” Michael gives him a lopsided smile, one Alex recognizes from ten years ago. “It always has been. I guess we’re just making it literal.”

Alex closes his eyes as he rests his forehead against Michael’s, his face flooded with pain and relief and fear, but Michael only holds him in tighter, unwilling to let him go.

“Alex,” Michael pleads, his fingers contracting and scraping a blunt path over the skin at Alex’s neck. “_Please_. Let me take you away from your father’s reach. Let’s break his hold on you.”

He's known his answer, but now it’s time to be brave enough to give it. 

“Do it,” he tells Yashiv, but he doesn’t let go of Michael. 

While it happens, Alex fixes his attention on Michael to remind him of what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and that he knows that if it’s a lifetime, it’s a lifetime of Michael keeping him safe and protected. For every beat of Michael’s heart, Alex’s pulse will beat in time with it, and they’ll finally feel what the other feels.

It should feel like cheating, but right now Alex intends to take every advantage he can. 

Yashiv reaches for Michael, presses his hand over Michael’s heart before he splays his fingers. There’s a glowing mark that begins to appear, even from beneath Michael’s threadbare t-shirt. In tandem, Alex can see the glow of his own mark beginning to light up.

He feels it, but not in the way he’d expected to.

One moment, there’s warmth and hope coming from Yashiv. The next, his heart beats with Michael’s and the glowing handprint brightens before it fades. Through the bond, he’s knocked back by the forceful impact of a man in love. He’s almost bowled over by it, but Michael tightens his grip on Alex, like he _knows_.

He's always going to know, isn’t he?

“We have to go,” Alex says, his voice full of regret. He gives Yashiv a look brimming with gratitude for giving him this chance to have a long life, _knowing_ that they won’t leave him here. It requires a plan far more complex than they have the time for, since tonight’s objective has solely been about removing himself from his father’s control.

Michael’s still being watched, they’re still in danger, but now Jesse can’t apply pressure to an alien and have Alex’s knees buckle. It’s not perfect, but it’s a better starting line than the one he was at before.

“We’ll come back,” Alex promises, as he fumbles to lead Michael out, feeling the uncertainty through their connection, which Michael is trying to hide. “Guerin, I swear,” he insists. “We’ll come back.” His eyes are wide and he is full of spitfire and determination, both emotions that he wants Michael to feel that through the bond. 

“We will.”

That steely determination from Michael is what Alex needs to move his ass. With Michael’s heartbeat keeping him alive, Alex draws on it and knows that no matter what happens next, they’re in this together.

They literally share a heart, after all.

* * *

In a week, they come back with a plan, resources, and an unwillingness to fail.

In Alex’s chest, he feels Michael’s heartbeat go double-speed when they come across a cell and find Michael’s mother sitting there, almost like she’s been waiting for him. She takes one look at Alex, then Michael, and her mouth curves up with a sad smile as she presses her hand over her heart. 

While the aliens they free are old and they all know they won’t live that much longer, it’s still a balm to Michael and his siblings that Alex is happy that he could provide.

When Michael loses his mother in the early hours of the morning several weeks after the escape, Alex shares his loss in more ways than one, and they sit in a dark bedroom curled up together as if one person, rocking back and forth as Michael cries and Alex bears the pain of the grief. 

In a month, Alex learns what it’s like to kiss Michael and hear his heart beat in triple-time, driven by passion and wild excitement that _he_ created. They also learn that when Michael gets turned on, so does Alex, and that’s a night to remember. Every time Alex is working and he feels his heart skip a beat, he slides his palm over his chest and closes his eyes, hoping that it’s because Michael is thinking of him.

In five years, Michael’s heart beats as steady and strong as ever. It’s weathered betrayal in the form of Noah, it’s undergone the steely determination of both of them dealing with Jesse Manes once and for all, but they find a foundation. They also create a new connection under the stars of the Roswell desert when Michael puts a ring on Alex’s hand, binding them in one new way. 

Twenty-five years later, Michael’s heart beats as strong as it did that first day when he inherited Alex’s lifeline. There are days when their relationship might falter with fights, even weeks when they’re apart on respective duties, but Alex has a tether bringing him back to a man willing to live a life for two. That day, when he’d taken on the bond, he’d saved Alex’s life and given him a future.

It’s a future that Alex refuses to take for granted. Every day is one that Alex Manes is living because of Michael. The handprint on his chest will never fade, not really, but Alex stopped wanting it to. It reminds him that no matter what, he knows one thing above all else.

Michael Guerin loves him and Michael Guerin lives for him.

All Alex has to do is give that back, and he makes his best effort to do it tenfold each and every day of their lives. Every night, Michael promises that he feels it through their bond, because Alex might belong to Michael, but Michael is the one keeping them safe and sound.


End file.
